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MONTEREY PARK, Calif. - The UC San Diego men sit in second while the women are seventh at the conclusion of the first day of the 2013 Arena Invitational on Thursday. UCSD is hosting the annual three-day meet at East Los Angeles College Swim Stadium.

The Triton men accumulated 345 points, with Hawai’i in the lead at 503. Cal Poly is third with 311 points.

Among 11 teams on the women’s side, UCSD has 156 points. San Jose State is on top with 318.

Nicholas Korth sped a lifetime-best 20.36 in the 50 freestyle to touch the wall in a dead heat with Karl-Richard Hennebach of UH. He now ranks third in the event in the UCSD record book, up from seventh. The senior captain improved on his prelim time of 20.60, which was second-fastest to Caleb Davies (20.59) of Cal Poly and matched his best ever.

Cole Heale was sixth (20.88) while senior Reid McCallum won the consolation final in 20.89. All three Tritons achieved NCAA consideration qualifiers.

Anji Shakya, on the other hand, qualified automatically already for the 2014 NCAA Division II Championships with her morning mark of 4:50.30 in the 500 free, getting well under the 4:53.05 cutoff while topping the entire field for prelims. In the championship final, her time of 4:56.46 was good enough for sixth.

Paul Li (4:27.62) and Kyle Nadler (4:32.74) each achieved B qualifiers in the men’s 500 in the morning before placing fifth (4:28.57) and seventh (4:31.60), respectively. A third Triton sophomore, AJ Zavala, narrowly missed his first B standard, in fourth in the 200 IM in 1:52.91, a mere .2 seconds off. Senior John Chang joined him in the final, taking sixth in 1:53.85 after timing 1:52.89 in prelims.